Ryan Hamner is a four-time survivor of Hodgkin lymphoma, a musician, and an award-winning author. In 2011, he wrote and recorded, "Where Hope Lives" for the American Cancer Society and the song for survivors, "Survivors Survive" used in 2015 for #WorldCancerDay. Recently, he published his book, This is Remission: A Four-Time Cancer Survivor's Memories of Treatment, Struggle, and Life, available on Amazon. His website is 

Ryan Hamner

As a cancer patient or a cancer survivor, many know, and studies show, that employment can often be an issue. Sometimes you simply can't find work, and other times you can't work on a schedule that fits your needs.

The need for one person might mean time to go to the doctor for follow-up appointments. And, the need for another person might mean time to rest between treatments.

However, there are some viable options to help people who have been affected by cancer earn money. Below, I'll talk about a few of them.

This is the dream for many: working from home. And it's totally doable.

Text Broker: If you write, there are services like Textbroker that will help you find writing gigs in different categories. You might not start off making much, but you can quickly move your way up to a decent rate, assuming you produce quality work.

Flex Jobs: And, if you want to step it up a notch, try something like Flex Jobs. They offer work-at-home opportunities for many different lines of work. Here you can find jobs in technology, photography, entertainment, sales, research - almost every area of work you can imagine. A large portion of the jobs are remote, and you can find part-time and full-time jobs here.

Fiverr: Then, there is Fiverr. It has been around a while. On Fiverr, you can earn money doing anything. Heck, in 2011, as a joke, I was making $5 a phone call to prank people's friends and ask where I was supposed to deliver their new pet goats.

Selling online is another way of making money - and there are plenty of places to sell.

One easy score when it comes to getting rid of unwanted items is Facebook Marketplace. It's effortless to use and can help get things sold very fast. I've sold shoes, guitars, and dog crates on Facebook Marketplace.

There is always selling on eBay and Amazon. To me, selling on Amazon can be a bit complicated. But, eBay is a pretty easy gig. I started selling on eBay shortly after my transplant in 2000. By 2003, I was selling tons of items, and by 2005, I was an eBay PowerSeller, shipping more than I could carry to the post office. In my opinion, eBay is a little different today than what it was back in 2005. However, it's still something to check out and consider when it comes to earning some money.

There are also apps, like Mercari and Letgo, that allow users to sell items from their smartphones. These apps will enable you to sell both new and used items. I prefer Mercari, and its user experience, personally, mainly because Letgo requires you to meet people in person.

Some jobs in food delivery require you to keep a schedule, where you have to show up to work at a certain time, and well, 

. But, with services like Uber Eats, Grubhub, Instacart, and Shipt, setting your own schedule can come in handy. Note, some of these services have waiting lists currently for new drivers. But, I've personally worked with Uber Eats. But fiar warning: delivering food can make you really hungry.

Similar to the above, rideshare services like Uber and Lyft can be a great way to make some extra money. I've used Uber and Lyft to supplement my income. Rideshare can also be a fun way to meet people and get out for a bit. I will say, though, this is probably not the best option for anyone who is actively in treatment for cancer or has a compromised immune system. The last thing someone on chemo needs is to be exposed to a person who is sick and sneezing in your car.

So, if you are frustrated with finding work, making ends meet, or job flexibility, consider some or a couple of the options I've mentioned. It could be the difference in getting that electric bill paid or having extra money to buy a gig on Fiverr and have someone prank call your friend about pet goats.

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Here, a survivor lists some alternative ways that patients with cancer or survivors in need of flexible employment can earn extra money.

Ways That People Affected by Cancer Can Earn Money

I have lots of questions about COVID-19 — about the numbers, the treatment, the testing and how it could impact someone like me with my history of cancer and cancer treatment. These are probably some of the same questions that many others have.

However, if there is one thing I'm pretty familiar with it's taking the steps necessary to lessen my chances of becoming infected. Assuming I wasn't infected already at some point and didn't know it.

Like many cancer survivors, I once lived in a bit of a bubble. For example, when I was a kid going through cancer treatment, and even during my final bout with lymphoma at age 21, wearing a mask in my limited outings was a somewhat normal procedure.

As a kid, this meant not going to the movies, playgrounds and the mall. I also remember the days of not being able to go to Showbiz Pizza. Wow, can you imagine? That was the happening spot for kids during the 80s, and talk about a way to build up your immune system!

Living this sort of limited life can be a bit of a downer as a kid. However, not being careful and not staying out of crowds during cancer treatment could, without a doubt, have had severe consequences.

For me, trying to prevent COVID-19 infection means going back to living as I lived during my days of intense chemotherapy. It means staying out of crowds, washing my hands regularly, getting rest, rinsing my mouth, getting the proper nutrition, and of course not licking doorknobs. 

One of the biggest challenges of living in my current situation is finding balance. Before COVID-19 this meant work, working out, hanging out at the coffee shop and working a little more at home. But, like virtually everyone else, I've had to make significant adjustments.

For example, lately, instead of weights and a punching bag, my workout now is made up of long walks around my apartment complex, strength exercises using only my body weight and shadowboxing. Although I will admit, yesterday I was doing some shoulder exercises with jugs of water.

For me, my approach to getting through COVID-19 will be to organize, assess and adjust. I'll continue to be careful, mindful, and most importantly, hopeful.

Cancer treatment has taught many survivors how to combat infection, a useful skill to adjusting life amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

COVID-19: For Many Cancer Survivors, Avoiding Infection is Very Familiar

"I need a smile," the photographer Carolyn said. I was freezing.

"I can't feel my face when I'm with you," I said jokingly, referencing the popular song by The Weeknd.

It was in the forties and overcast. That's not too bad for many, but with the windchill and a little mist, it felt pretty icy to me. Oh yeah, and I've been living in Florida since 2012, so my body isn't exactly used to anything remotely cold.

There I was, after just over 30 years, standing in the driveway of the Houston Mill Ronald McDonald House in Atlanta, Georgia. It was surreal. I was back, but this time under much better circumstances.

That long winding driveway was at one time my cue that "we were there." Most of the time, on the ride to the House, I would just lay all of the way back in the car seat. In and out of sleep, I'd stare up towards the ceiling of the car with a limited view of what I could see outside of the car window. But, when we got to the winding driveway with all of the tall trees I knew we were there. This time though, many of those trees were gone.

Aleea, who worked with the Ronald McDonald House, was also there helping out with the pictures being taken of me for Ronald McDonald House's 40th anniversary. They were trying to snap a few shots of my Bamba Box and me.

"Do you have any jokes?" I would ask her. And she'd reply with a smile, which usually helped me smile for the camera.

In the 80s, after leaving a chemo session at the Emory Pediatric Clinic, I can remember being pushed out to the car in a wheelchair by my mom, although other family members definitely helped out, I was then slowly eased into the passenger's seat little by little. Seriously, one wrong move and things could get worse before we were ready.

When I think back on it now, I always remember being pushed out of that clinic into a sunny day. For whatever reason, that's my memory of leaving. But, many other memories of those days don't really align with a "sunny day." Things were tough.

I spent many nights at the Houston Mill Ronald McDonald House between the ages of 6 and 12 if I remember correctly. But remembering specifics isn't easy at times.

As Aleea and I walked around to the back of the house - a house now missing some of its paint and in need of some work - it all felt like something out of a movie. To many, it would mean nothing, just an old house. But now, how going back made me feel was hard to describe. There is not a single word that can capture what hit me as I approached that door on the back of the house that we used to go through after chemo treatments.

This was the door that we went through so many times to get into the house and back to my room. It wasn't just a door on a house, though. Going through that door was a marker for me back then — a signal.

In the past, going through that door meant that I was just minutes away from becoming violently ill. It was like clockwork back then. Finish chemo, ride to the Ronald McDonald House and just get through it. Oh, and the ice chips, those were always in the mix too.

As I peered into the windows of that back door of the Houston Mill Ronald McDonald House, I could see the playroom that I remembered going by so many times. It had changed so much. It was now just an empty room where it appeared that some remodeling had begun but abruptly stopped.

Going back to the house had more of an impact on me than I initially thought it would. It was bittersweet. This was the place that provided me and my family a home in one of the hardest times of my life, and my family's too. We met others there going through similar trials. My hope is that the "sweet" memories of the hard times for all of us outweigh the "bitter" ones and it's more like a "sunny day" now.

30 years after cancer treatment, one survivor returns to the Ronald McDonald House that made a major difference in their cancer journey.

The Ronald McDonald House: Going Back After 30 Years

You know, when I completed my bone marrow transplant in 1998, I thought, "I'm done. I'm over it. I'm out of this place." And well, I was.

It was my fourth cancer KO. That part felt pretty good. And this time around, treatment, in many ways, had been much better.

There were new medications to make me feel better, hurt less and not puke as much. But the one thing I didn't see coming after my seemingly final victory over cancer, was a sneaky uppercut from elsewhere — the long-term side effects of treatment.

If you are done with your cancer treatment, or even still going through it, below are a few tips and suggestions that I believe may help you.

If I would have focused more on some of these things, I feel that I could have avoided or dramatically reduced the impact of several serious late-term problems associated with cancer treatment.

Your situation will undoubtedly be different than mine. But, the overall point is, as generic as it sounds, to be proactive.

Okay, obviously, I don't mean for survivors to actually go learn world history or anything like that. Although that kind of stuff can be pretty cool. Personally, I like to learn about ancient civilizations. Nerd alert!

Anyway, what I mean with this whole history thing is to get familiar with what types of things you should be on the lookout for in the future — learn what types of long-term side effects certain treatments, procedures, etc. could have on you down the road. Look to what others have gone through in similar situations to yours.

For me, my big long-term surprise was my heart. I was notified of this problem via v-tach and falling out unconscious onto the floor Christmas day in 2006.

Cancer treatment can cause the heart to pump less efficiently, cause changes in blood flow and/or increase the risk for blood clots (thrombosis) that can cause a heart attack.

The most common heart conditions caused by these changes are congestive heart failure, the most serious cardiotoxicity related to cancer treatment, inflammation of the heart muscle (pericarditis) and coronary artery disease. Other heart problems that can be caused by cancer treatment include low blood pressure (hypotension), high blood pressure (hypertension), abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) and valve disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

So, do yourself a favor, find out if your treatments are cardiotoxic and get regular evaluations from your doctor, even if you feel great. Heck, when I temporarily left Christmas in 2006, I was feeling pretty good overall.

This is something I do personally and highly recommend, working out with weights and doing cardio.

It's a huge stress reliever for me and is something I've been doing over the years, even through cancer.

But don't just take my word for it, guidelines from experts are recommending 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 times a week and strength training 2 to 3 times a week. 

This is another must-do, I believe. Find that one thing (or two) you love to do. Find that hobby that you enjoy doing every day, and dive in.

Giving yourself something to look forward to regularly is going to keep your spirits up and keep you going.

I enjoy several things like reading, writing and weightlifting. Even if I'm physically sick, I may not be able to lift weights, but I can always read and write.

As a survivor, what's your advice for after treatment? 

Four things you can do to help protect yourself and cope after cancer.

Ryan Hamner

Ways That People Affected by Cancer Can Earn Money

COVID-19: For Many Cancer Survivors, Avoiding Infection is Very Familiar

The Ronald McDonald House: Going Back After 30 Years

Four Things You Can Do After Cancer Treatment

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